Latest Techdirt Commentshttps://www.techdirt.com/
Easily digestible tech news....Re: A couple of early observationshttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180318/00111439443/both-facebook-cambridge-analytica-threatened-to-sue-journalists-over-stories-cas-use-facebook-data.shtml#c128
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 07:54:04 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180318/00111439443/both-facebook-cambridge-analytica-threatened-to-sue-journalists-over-stories-cas-use-facebook-data.shtml#c128https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180318/00111439443/both-facebook-cambridge-analytica-threatened-to-sue-journalists-over-stories-cas-use-facebook-data.shtml#c127
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 07:52:10 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180318/00111439443/both-facebook-cambridge-analytica-threatened-to-sue-journalists-over-stories-cas-use-facebook-data.shtml#c127If the answer to 1 is no or the answer to 2 is yes then no breach. However we are pretty sure the answer to 1 is yes and the answer to 2 is no, so the protections on the data were breached.]]>Re: @garyhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180316/17175539438/can-sesta-be-fixed.shtml#c65
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 07:47:40 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180316/17175539438/can-sesta-be-fixed.shtml#c65A couple of early observationshttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180318/00111439443/both-facebook-cambridge-analytica-threatened-to-sue-journalists-over-stories-cas-use-facebook-data.shtml#c112
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 07:22:53 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180318/00111439443/both-facebook-cambridge-analytica-threatened-to-sue-journalists-over-stories-cas-use-facebook-data.shtml#c112I think it's probably prudent to think of 50M as a floor, not a ceiling. These incidents are ALWAYS worse. See: Experian. See: Yahoo. See: pretty much any dataloss/breach/security incident over the past couple of decades.

2. "Cambridge Analytica got its data by having a Cambridge academic (who the new Guardian story revealed for the first time is also appointed to a position at St. Petersburg University) set up an app that was used to collect much of this data, and misled Facebook by telling them it was purely for academic purposes[...]"

This is blatant academic misconduct. In the US (can't speak to UK law) all research involving human subjects - which includes their data - has to go through a vetting process which includes details on what data will be involved, what will be done with it, what the research objectives are, how the data will be protected, how the data will be retained/destroyed, etc. This includes an IRB (Institutional Review Board) which includes insiders (such as people at the same institution) and outsiders (people who aren't) and has veto authority. If you tell the IRB "we're going to study there/they're/their conflation among millenials" and you instead use the data to study their choices in smartphones, it's not going to go well for you when the IRB finds out. And this present case is clearly much, much worse.

3. "Facebook doesn't sell your data. It sells access to its users via the data it has on you."

And it has gone to enormous lengths to acquire, store, and analyze that data. That's why its market valuation is upstairs of $200B. Facebook acquires every scrap of data that it can about everyone and everything, and subjects it to excruciating analysis: that's its entire reason for existing, the "social" features are just wallpaper over the important machinery.

Given that singular focus, I find it VERY hard to believe that anyone or anything accessed data on 50M people and wasn't noticed. That should have left a trail a mile wide in the logs, easily noticed with even perfunctory analysis.

So either they weren't monitoring what their own operation was doing -- which would be a stunning level of incompetence and negligence -- or they knew about this all along.]]>Re: CDA 230 Removal will fix sex traffickinghttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180316/17175539438/can-sesta-be-fixed.shtml#c59
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 07:08:48 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180316/17175539438/can-sesta-be-fixed.shtml#c59Th Gullibility Testhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180318/00111439443/both-facebook-cambridge-analytica-threatened-to-sue-journalists-over-stories-cas-use-facebook-data.shtml#c103
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 07:02:56 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180318/00111439443/both-facebook-cambridge-analytica-threatened-to-sue-journalists-over-stories-cas-use-facebook-data.shtml#c103Easy access to informationhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180315/10501039431/internet-wins-need-to-appreciate-what-weve-got-before-gone.shtml#c334
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 06:58:55 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180315/10501039431/internet-wins-need-to-appreciate-what-weve-got-before-gone.shtml#c334It also fosters community by providing forums for fandom, for tech advice, and for enabling the creation and publishing of blogs like this.

It also fosters creativity since the limits of what the internet can do are determined by our own imagination. Put it this way: back in the late Eighties when I dreamed of having my own home computer I never imagined that I'd be writing blog posts, creating my own graphics, or learning or buying online. I certainly never imagined communicating and debating with total strangers from other countries in real time. The internet has expanded my horizons in ways I still don't understand.]]>The Duck Testhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180318/00111439443/both-facebook-cambridge-analytica-threatened-to-sue-journalists-over-stories-cas-use-facebook-data.shtml#c90
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 06:57:49 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180318/00111439443/both-facebook-cambridge-analytica-threatened-to-sue-journalists-over-stories-cas-use-facebook-data.shtml#c90Re: private arbitrationhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180315/09292639429/if-you-ratify-ceta-trade-deal-youll-break-law-legal-expert-tells-eu-member-states.shtml#c495
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 06:54:37 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180315/09292639429/if-you-ratify-ceta-trade-deal-youll-break-law-legal-expert-tells-eu-member-states.shtml#c495https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180318/00111439443/both-facebook-cambridge-analytica-threatened-to-sue-journalists-over-stories-cas-use-facebook-data.shtml#c68
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 06:51:30 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180318/00111439443/both-facebook-cambridge-analytica-threatened-to-sue-journalists-over-stories-cas-use-facebook-data.shtml#c68Suckerberg has always been a very bad ambasador for the company and he lacks the slick to avoid getting in trouble. He didn't do anything about the "I See Dead Profiles"-situation before the lawsuits were nearing a resolution he didn't like. He seems to have a policy of never acting for the users interest without significant legislative or political pressure. That is why Facebook will become quite a Facepalm as soon as the fines rain down on them.]]>https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180308/15313239392/leaked-documents-expose-nypds-long-running-lack-officer-discipline.shtml#c375
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 06:51:24 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180308/15313239392/leaked-documents-expose-nypds-long-running-lack-officer-discipline.shtml#c375https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180316/17175539438/can-sesta-be-fixed.shtml#c39
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 06:49:54 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180316/17175539438/can-sesta-be-fixed.shtml#c39I did what? Oh my goodness!https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180318/00111439443/both-facebook-cambridge-analytica-threatened-to-sue-journalists-over-stories-cas-use-facebook-data.shtml#c53
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 06:46:37 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180318/00111439443/both-facebook-cambridge-analytica-threatened-to-sue-journalists-over-stories-cas-use-facebook-data.shtml#c53

At the very least, it can be said that Facebook should have recognized much earlier that this could and would be done and to understand the potential privacy problems related to it. Facebook has a fairly long and painful history of not quite realizing how what it does impacts people's privacy, and this is one more example.

Some would argue that Facebook isn't quite as innocent as it pretends to be when it gets caught.

]]>it must be really badhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180318/00111439443/both-facebook-cambridge-analytica-threatened-to-sue-journalists-over-stories-cas-use-facebook-data.shtml#c16
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 06:37:58 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180318/00111439443/both-facebook-cambridge-analytica-threatened-to-sue-journalists-over-stories-cas-use-facebook-data.shtml#c16Re:https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180313/10404539417/us-navy-accused-massive-amounts-piracy-german-software-company.shtml#c647
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 06:35:07 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180313/10404539417/us-navy-accused-massive-amounts-piracy-german-software-company.shtml#c647Actually, due to the fetishization of the military there would be some harrumphing after which they'd get clean away with it. Again.]]>Re: Re: America:https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180313/10404539417/us-navy-accused-massive-amounts-piracy-german-software-company.shtml#c631
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 06:30:24 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180313/10404539417/us-navy-accused-massive-amounts-piracy-german-software-company.shtml#c631@garyhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180316/17175539438/can-sesta-be-fixed.shtml#c28
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 06:14:24 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180316/17175539438/can-sesta-be-fixed.shtml#c28and im in canada remember that your stupidity while slightly infectous doesn't pertain to us yet....

and who cares about commenting anymore its just troll haven ...if what you envision then facebook would also die...wont happen cause data mining by feds and friends]]>CDA 230 Removal will fix sex traffickinghttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180316/17175539438/can-sesta-be-fixed.shtml#c20
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 06:05:55 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180316/17175539438/can-sesta-be-fixed.shtml#c20Weakening CDA 230 is the only point of the bill, isn't it?]]>https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180308/15313239392/leaked-documents-expose-nypds-long-running-lack-officer-discipline.shtml#c374
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 05:19:04 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180308/15313239392/leaked-documents-expose-nypds-long-running-lack-officer-discipline.shtml#c374Re: Re:https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180313/10151539415/serious-sam-developer-teams-up-with-denuvo-cracker-to-pump-up-sales-failed-game.shtml#c210
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 05:04:13 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180313/10151539415/serious-sam-developer-teams-up-with-denuvo-cracker-to-pump-up-sales-failed-game.shtml#c210